I would like first of all to thank the people who made the October, 1998 Akhal-Teke Quarterly so interesting; especially the articles about the use of Akhal-Teke horses in the development of the English Thoroughbred racing horse.

Most readers of the Akhal-Teke Quarterly know that in September, 1997, I came to America with 33 pureblood Akhal-Teke horses from my breeding farm in Dubna, Russia, and their trainers, and now I've begun a stud farm on 255 acres of land in Texas. The farm produces pureblood Akhal-Teke horses. In November, 1998, I brought over another group of 18 horses. Now that I have become one of you, everything that happens concerning the Akhal-Teke in the United States touches me very closely.

I have some ideas about Akhal-Teke horses, and their future here in the USA, and I think it would be interesting to discuss them in the Quarterly.

The future of any breed depends upon a lot of factors:

• The quality of the breeding mares and stallions;
• How closely related the horses within the group are to each other;
• The breeder's breeding program--i.e., does the breeder have a clear idea of what type of horse they are ultimately trying to produce?
• The situation in the overall horse market; and
• The breeders' plans to address the horse market so that Akhal-Tekes will command a bigger share of it (for example, with prizes, or in producing a horse which will be of interest to people who can afford to pay for such a carefully produced horse).

We could list many other factors, but let's stop on these five.

All of us know that breeding horses is an expensive hobby or business. If the horse market doesn't want your horses, you can speak for years about how old the breed is and what wonders it has accomplished in the past, but nothing will happen. That's why when you breed horses, you need to think not only about your own taste, but also about the taste of the horse market.

The American horse market now, as I see it, is divided into two big groups: people who like the western horse such as the Quarter Horse, and people who like a big, sportive horse such as the Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods. The Akhal-Teke, of course, is closer to the second group, warmbloods and Thoroughbreds. When you show an Akhal-Teke to people from the second group, a lot of them will say, "The neck is too high, this horse will have problems jumping; the back is too long, this horse will have problems engaging his hindquarters," and many other critical things. And this is normal, because the Akhal-Teke will be a new type of horse to them; and all horse owners are very conservative people--they like their own horses. The only way to change this situation in the horse market is to start with this new type of horse in competition, and to show that it can win. That, for everybody, is a very strong argument.

But to win in serious competitions, you need to have a strong, sportive horse that is talented in the ype of sport in which you compete.

Now we come very close to a discussion about the quality of Akhal-Teke horses. Always, when you breed horses, you try to do two things: make a very typey horse, and make a horse with strong and productive movements. The second is the main thing for a sportive horse.

Another thing: the market now asks for big horses--16 hh and taller. If you produce small horses, you will not be able to sell them for normal prices. In reality, the Akhal-Teke is a breed of tall horses. In other words, we need to save the uniform, bright type of Akhal-Teke horse on the one hand, and on the other hand breed big horses with super movements that can win in open competition. There is no problem inherent in the breed--Akhal-Teke horses have everything that we need for a sportive horse; but if we will not have a clearly-defined breeding program (and Tatiana Riabova and others from the Russian association could help Americans with ideas for ways to breed for both type and sportiveness), I think we will, in time, have a big problem.

Some examples: In Germany, official organizations make a list of stallions that breeders can use. The foals of other stallions cannot be registered in the breed's stud book. In Russia, the rules are not so tough; the Russian association only recommends stallions for breeding, but if you use other stallions, the foals will still be registered in the stud book.

I saw a lot of small Akhal-Teke horses in America. We need to breed big horses for sport, that can win in the competitions. Without this type of horse, the market will not be seriously interested in Akhal-Teke horses.

I would like to mention another matter: any horse can be either a pureblood, or not. Nothing more. The best for breeders who breed with closely related horses would be to stop doing so, because the probability of breeding inferior horses is very high, and besides, there is no reason to do this.

I imported to America high quality stallions from the lines of Gelishikli, Yel ["El" to Americans], Karlavach, Ak Sakal, Peren, and Kaplan. Let us use them.

Of course, we need to push the market the people will be used to the normal prices. I think the normal price for a nice, pureblood Akhal-Teke horse needs to be close to $30,000. The last year I sold 9 adult horses for prices from $27,000 to $50,000 each. The quality of these horses was very superior.

To go out to the competitions costs a lot of money. Maybe we need to think about a group of people who will decide how to spend the money of the association to send the best horses to competitions.

In 1998 I showed horses twice; in dressage, second level, fourth test with four different young horses--and earned four 1^st places. And in a breeding show, took 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th. I now have a six-year-old horse at Prix St. George level dressage.

If anybody is interested in these things, please, let's discuss them in the near future.